Rainfall

Throughout June 2013, South Australia received above the long term average June rainfall for the state as a whole, resulting in the wettest June for the state since 2004. Apart from the far west and northeast where rainfall was average to below average, most locations recorded a wetter than average start to winter. Parts of Upper North and Flinders Ranges observed new record high June total rainfall. The wettest periods for most districts occurred on between the 1st and 3rd, between the 11th and 14th and between the 21st and 24th. At the beginning of the month, a broad low pressure trough crossed the state producing widespread rain for most districts, several locations observed new record highest daily rainfall totals associated with this event. The passage of a low pressure system on the 11th across southern parts of the state resulted in patchy rain and isolated thunderstorms which continued through to the 14th. Another slow moving low pressure system crossed south of the state on the 21st, producing rain and thunderstorm activity through to the 24th.

Pastoral Districts

Rainfall totals over the pastoral districts were mostly average to above average though tending below average in the far Northeast. Totals typically ranged between 30 to 60 mm, with a number of locations across the Northwest and Far North recording more than double the usual for this time of year. The wettest overall in the Pastoral districts was at Blinman in the Far North, with 96.0 mm; 64.2 mm of which was observed on the 1st which is the highest June daily total on record for this location.

Agricultural Districts

Aside from the far west, above average rainfall was observed across most of the Agricultural districts. Eastern parts of the Eyre Peninsula, the mid north, eastern Kangaroo Island and the lower Murray Valley observed very much above average rainfall for the month. The lower South-east, metropolitan Adelaide, parts of the Mount Lofty ranges and southern parts of the Yorke Peninsula tended more average through June.

Totals were in the range of 60 to 80mm in most locations, but tending higher and in excess of 100 mm across the Mount Lofty and Flinders Ranges, with several locations observing daily and monthly highest on record. The wettest overall for the month in the agricultural districts was at Parawa (Sharon) in the southern part Mount Lofty Ranges with a record high 266.6 mm, surpassing the previous wettest June by nearly 3 mm which was observed in 1955.

Temperature

The mean temperature (the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures) for South Australia as a whole in June 2013 was 0.6 °C above the long-term average. By contrast, June 2012 was 0.14 °C below average. Mean temperatures at particular stations ranged from 8.4°C at Yongala in the Upper North to 14.9°C at Neptune Island off the southeast coast of Eyre Peninsula.

Maximum Temperature

Mean maximum temperatures over South Australia were generally below average across the State throughout June, particularly for the Northwest pastoral. Averaged across the state as a whole, June maximum temperatures were 0.3 °C below normal. Some locations were as cool as 2 °C below average across the northwest of the state. Southern coastal regions and eastern parts of the state observed daytime temperature more near average.

Average daily maximum temperatures ranged from 10.8°C at Mount Lofty to 20.6 °C at Moomba Airport in the Northeast district.

The coldest periods for many locations occurred through the third and fourth week of June as low pressure and cold frontal systems crossed south of the state. Mount Lofty recorded the coldest day of the month when its maximum temperature only reached 7.2°C on the 21st.

The warmest day for much of the state occurred on the 10th and 11th in the northerly air stream ahead of low pressure trough. Moomba Airport observed the hottest day for any location in the State, reaching 29.3°C on the 11th

Minimum Temperature

Mean minimum temperatures were widely above average across South Australia through June; with a state-wide average at 1.6 °C above normal, June 2013 is the warmest with respect to night-time temperatures since 2004. The warmest part of the state with respect to overnight temperatures was across the far north of the northwest pastoral district where minimum temperatures were in excess of 2°C warmer than normal.

The warmest nights for most of South Australia occurred through the first 2 weeks of June, while the latter half of the month saw cooler conditions prevail. Moomba Airport observed the warmest night for any location in the state on the 1st, with a minimum of 18.5 °C. Coonawarra, in the Southeast of the state, observed the coldest night with a minimum of -2.8 °C on June 20th.

The warmest nights on average were observed at Neptune Island with 13.2°C, while Yongala observed the coolest nights on average with a monthly average 3.9 °C.

Notes

A Monthly Climate Summary is prepared to list the main features of the weather in South Australia using the most timely and accurate information available on the date of publication; it will generally not be updated. Later information, including data that has had greater opportunity for quality control, will be presented in the Monthly Weather Review, usually published in the fourth week of the month.

This statement has been prepared based on information available at
9 am on Monday 1 July 2013.
Some checks have been made on the data, but it is possible that results will change
as new information becomes available.

Averages are long-term means based on observations from
all available years of record, which vary widely from site to site.
They are not shown for sites with less than 20 years of record, as they cannot then be calculated reliably.
The median
is sometimes more representative than the
mean
of long-term average rain.

The Rank indicates how rainfall this time compares with the climate record for the site,
based on the
decile ranking
(very low rainfall is in decile 1, low in decile 2 or 3,
average in decile 4 to 7, high in decile 8 or 9
and very high is in decile 10).
The Fraction of average shows how much rain has fallen this time as a
percentage of the long-term mean.

The ACORN-SAT dataset
is being used for temperature area averages from December 2012 onwards.
The major change from earlier datasets is that the ACORN-SAT dataset commences in 1910, rather than 1950,
and hence rankings are calculated using a larger set of years.